The European/World Football Thread III

To be honest, I think Keane would be their best bet. They need somebody to rally the fanbase and create a siege mentality, now that Rangers are re-joining them in the top flight.

Moyes and Rodgers? It'd be a backward step for both of them, to be honest.

Rodgers is in talks with Celtic. Might be a better economic option as Keane, as manager, likes to spend the cash and that won't be in massive supply at Parkhead and Rodgers might work easier within restrictions. But yes, Keane would have been good viewing as boss.

See, that surprises me. Is it really a challenge for somebody like Rodgers? As much as his tenure at Liverpool disappointed towards the end, I think there's a top coach in there.

Celtic are undoubtedly a big club, and he may see this as a good way to get confidence back before moving back to the PL or even Europe.

It's an uninspiring league, though.

Celtic just appear to have this aura about them and if they come knocking I suspect most people would jump at the chance to spend some time managing there.

I think he will, naturally, get stick from the Celtic fans but his fans will get behind him. Scott Brown seems to have been a Rangers fan as a kid so wouldn't think its a massive issue. Rangers v Celtic shaping up nicely enough for me to take an interest in their games next season

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See, that surprises me. Is it really a challenge for somebody like Rodgers? As much as his tenure at Liverpool disappointed towards the end, I think there's a top coach in there.

Celtic are undoubtedly a big club, and he may see this as a good way to get confidence back before moving back to the PL or even Europe.

It's an uninspiring league, though.

It feels like the right time to bring this thread back up...

After four long seasons without winning the league, Porto were crowned Champions of Portugal yesterday.

Benfica have been dominant over the past few seasons and with Porto unable to buy any players due to the UEFA Financial Fair Play meant we had to make do with what we had...which I didn't expect to be good enough to win the league. Somehow Sergio Conceicao managed to get something out of players like Marega, Sergio Oliveira and Ricardo Pereira to help us to win the league.

There's even a good chance Benfica might miss out on Champions League football next season too, that all goes down to the final game next week, a very bad season for them.

It feels like the right time to bring this thread back up...

After four long seasons without winning the league, Porto were crowned Champions of Portugal yesterday.

Benfica have been dominant over the past few seasons and with Porto unable to buy any players due to the UEFA Financial Fair Play meant we had to make do with what we had...which I didn't expect to be good enough to win the league. Somehow Sergio Conceicao managed to get something out of players like Marega, Sergio Oliveira and Ricardo Pereira to help us to win the league.

There's even a good chance Benfica might miss out on Champions League football next season too, that all goes down to the final game next week, a very bad season for them.

I am surprised this thread went quiet with so much interest in the European Leagues.

Have the FFP restrictions expired for Porto now? Can they build on this squad? They didn't look great against Liverpool tbh.

ra-ra-ra was always our resident European expert so when she disappeared, so too did this thread to a degree.

Not really no, we have a couple more seasons of this.

We had debts of €116m on operational costs so we're having to sell a lot more than we can buy. We need to limit our losses by a certain amount each year so by the 2020-2021 financial year we should break-even.

We're limited to how many players we can select for when we play in Europe too. So this season we could only select a squad of 22 and then the 2018-2019 season it'll be 23.

If we don't meet the certain criterias and if we exceed our spending limit, then we'll face a further fine of around €1.5m. So a few more tough years ahead really.

That's why players like Ruben Neves and Andre Silva had no choice to leave when they did and didn't have much choice where they were going either. We just had to get rid asap so we could avoid an actual transfer ban, at the moment we're just very limited as to what we can spend. Whilst it has worked out great for Ruben Neves (€16m was an absolute steal for Wolves btw!), it has been the worst possible move for Andre Silva. Not only has it delayed his potential it's a blow for Portugal in the WC. Fernando Santos is going to call him up regardless of his form for Milan, but it's the worst possible form heading into the WC. The only plus is his form for Portugal he is a lot better than he has been a Milan. I don't think he even wanted to leave Porto that early into his career but he was one of our best options to claw some money back so had to get rid.

So yeah, basically the short answer would have been to not expect much from us in Europe again next season... But you got an essay instead, sorry!

There were a couple other European Football fans on this site so it is a shame this thread died really. I'm still a huge European football fan and still have an interest in South American football too, not much has changed!

Really interesting to hear. I hadn't appreciated it was so bad at Porto. Not seen anything in the main stream media about it (although maybe I missed it).

After winning the league title this year, any new saleable assets this summer?